Category Archives: Music

As many of you know, I have always had an entrepreneurial spirit. Somewhere between my detective agency (inspired by Encyclopedia Brown) and Poison Candy, there was “Second To None Records”.

In the mid 90’s I found myself residing in Austin, Texas. I had set out from my hometown in Southern California for New York City where I planned to attend design school and enter the world of haute couture. Like most Californians, I assumed that Texas was a barren wasteland filled with tumbleweeds and drunken cowboys. Strangely enough, I immediately fell in love with the unusual city and ended up staying for three years.

In 1997 my business partner and I decided to start our own record label. We named it “Second To None records” after being inspired the Avengers song and had high hopes of producing all of our favorite local bands. Austin has a ton of incredible music, but it wasn’t difficult for us to narrow the field to the two bands we adored the most.

The Dead End Cruisers and Lower Class Brats played all over town with fierce integrity and they were the obvious choice for our first record. We already made it a point to attend all of their shows, so getting them to work with our label was a dream come true. Overjoyed at the idea of putting out a split 7″ with both bands, we kicked some serious ass in the studio and pressed 500 records on gorgeous blue vinyl.

We had a blast pimping our beautiful little vinyl darlings all over town as well as across the pond. Frequent trips were made to local record shops and many hours were spent shipping packages to eager fans all over the world. Sadly, before we had the opportunity to facilitate another pressing, the partnership was dissolved and I was on my way to San Francisco.

So, you must be asking, what happened to all of those gorgeous records? Well, as expected, most were sold immediately after the first and only pressing. The LCB/DEC split 7″ has been considered rare all of these years due to scarcity, although a few used copies have made an appearance on collector’s sites and random record shops. There was, however, a very small box from the factory that I kept unopened…

Re-introducing the Lower Class Brats/Dead End Cruisers split 7′ from Second To None Records! I had to keep a couple of records for myself, but really wanted to get the remaining copies in the hands of people who would appreciate them. The Lower Class Brats were excited to see them again and are now selling them in their shop.

These records are from the ORIGINAL 1997 pressing of only 500 copies. Not only are they in mint condition, but Bones and Marty have also signed them! It’s been so much fun revisiting this part of my history…seriously amazing hearing those tracks after so many years 🙂

Oh, and be warned…The Lower Class Brats have some insanely cool swag in their shop, so don’t browse without bringing your lunch money!